Handbrake cables too short. What to do?

[SV1CEC]

SV1CEC, good to see you participate in the forums (or are there more than one avid XJ fan in Greece).

Thanks for all the tips and the welcome.

As far as I know, there are three of us with modified XJs here, mine being the oldest (1984) and meanest

Rgds

 

[98 classic]

You should only have to buy the drivers side. Buy a 94 YJ passenger side and put it on your passenger side. Reroute your passenger side to the drivers side. Hope this helps

 

[SV1CEC]

You should only have to buy the drivers side. Buy a 94 YJ passenger side and put it on your passenger side. Reroute your passenger side to the drivers side. Hope this helps

Why? Are the two cables different on an XJ?

I know that they are different on the Wranglers which have a foot-activated e-brake, but on a Cherokee?

Rgds

 

[ChuckD]

The Ebrake cables and mounting locations are different on a 98' than an older XJ. SV!CEC, your fine if you decide to relocate the brackets.

 

[SV1CEC]

Gents,

I didn't had time to work on this, until today. So what I did, was to take an angled piece of iron and make two holes in the middle for the handbrake cables. Then I lied under the truck, trying to find the best place to locate it.

Have a look at the picture below:

By the way Ed, this comes from your site, I just edited to add the arrows.

Now, these two things you see there, should be the seatbelts mounting brackets. They look pretty strong, so I used the two small holes they have towards the front of the truck, to secure the angle to the frame. Do you think this is OK or shall I mount it on the body, as shown in the picture? These two small "ears" there, with the holes. looked as if they were made just for this purpose.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Rgds

 

[Rocky]

I would bolt through the body using a good sized washer to back up the bolts. When I did this mod to my XJ, I drilled 4 holes through in the same location the pic shows. I figured that using an angle bracket like that would put alot of leverage on the bracket and those seat tabs might not take it. That's what I did and it works great, good luck!

 

[SV1CEC]

Well, here is finally the setup I did.

I didn't use those brackets at the seat belt mounts, the reason being that they put the angle too high up, and the connecting nut was touching the floor. Also, it mounted the angle too far backward for proper positioning of the cables.

Here is where I mounted it:

Another picture which shows how the cables were routed.

Shall I pass the cable behind the exhaust hanger? Maybe behind the exhaust tube? I am not sure.

Finally, here is a picture of the connecting nut and the rod.

There are a couple of things I am still not sure.

First, the position of the cables. I passed the passenger's one above the muffler and to the passenger's side of the exhaust pipe, as shown above. I hope this will work. Any suggestions (or even better pictures) will be appreciated.

Second, the square piece of iron, where the cables are attached on the rod, is too close to the OEM cable mounts. I might trim the OEM mounts off, as I wouldn't like my handbrake to bind on these things when pulled. I can see on Ed's picture that it is more or less at the same position as mine.

Finally, I have to shorten the rod a bit, too long as it is now.

What do you think? Any ideas?

Tnx and rgds

 

[Ed A. Stevens]

Looks good, and should feel good when pulling up the handle (more solid with less handle travel).

I would not worry about the OEM mounts, they are too far away from the taught cables to be a problem (mine have never caused any problem).

The cable jackets should be routed to minimize tight bends with wide radius loops behind the body mounts and into the drum backing plates. If this is better accomplished by routing the cable behind the exhaust hanger then make the change.

That long rod makes for a long wrench session... been there too.

Does the cable brake action feel better and work better now with the change?

Happy Trails!

 

[SV1CEC]

Looks good, and should feel good when pulling up the handle (more solid with less handle travel).

I would not worry about the OEM mounts, they are too far away from the taught cables to be a problem (mine have never caused any problem).

The cable jackets should be routed to minimize tight bends with wide radius loops behind the body mounts and into the drum backing plates. If this is better accomplished by routing the cable behind the exhaust hanger then make the change.

That long rod makes for a long wrench session... been there too.

Does the cable brake action feel better and work better now with the change?

Happy Trails!

Ed,

Yeah, I think I'll have to lie under there again, and do some rerouting of the cables. As they are, they look too sharply bend, so some more thinking is required.

The action seems OK as it is, I do not know if it is better now than before, I just drove it out of the building basement to a parking spot on the street yesterday, so ... I can't really say.

Thanks for all your help. Your site has been an inspiration when I started the XJ adventure.

Rgds and many tnx

 

[ChuckD]

Looks great, go out and flex it up again. You'll probably find more stuff limitting you.

BTW
How long and much did it take you, to buy angle and rod and hardware?

 

[SV1CEC]

Chuck,

I got the angled bar from my landlord's scrap, so I paid nothing for that. The nuts and bolts and the rod were something like 5 Euros (i.e. ~ 5 US$) but I got more bolts than I needed, and some other screws etc. So, the whole cost was maybe less than a dollar for this mod.

It took me about 2 hours all together to complete, most of the time was spend on figuring out how the passenger's side cable should be routed. Removing the cable end from the angled bar was a pain (I did it with the truck on its four wheels, working under a lifted XJ is easier than in a stock car, but still not that easy).

I'll take it out for a ride, maybe this weekend. I do hope I find nothing else limiting my flex, although I am quite happy the way she is now (notice the female character LoL).

Again, thanks to all who spend time answering my question.

Rgds